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A matter of Geographical location?
Dear Resident Reverend,
I would like some advice about a strange difference of opinion concerning the Catholic church and the Church of England.
Ok, my situation is the following....
I am British, Baptised church of England and my fiancee is German, catholic. We both live in Germany and are to be married this year here in Germany. I have been married before in a Scottish registry office and since divorced which is not a problem according to the three catholic priests which we have seen. They said that so long as my former wife was not catholic then its not a problem. They (the catholic church) even advised me to obtain a letter from my local parish vicar back in the
UK to say that i had not been married in the church before, which i did.
So,everything was then booked regarding the wedding. Last week, we had to go and see the local catholic priest to sort out the paperwork for the wedding which was then sent off to get approval from their main office and this is when they turned around and said no.
The reason was the following....
If you were previously married in a registry office, divorced then you are not allowed to get married again in the Catholic church. This is because they say that the church of England recognises a civil wedding as a church wedding and therefore it would be sacrement. However,and this is the strange thing....if you were married before in a registry office and divorced and wanted to marry again in the church in Germany then that would be ok.
They say that because of the recognition that the church of England has for a civil wedding then this is why they wont marry us.
So,excuse the long-windyness of the question,but does the church of England see civil weddings in this way, does that also apply to civil weddings in Scotland?I say this as i was always under the impression that civil wedding were completely devoid of any reference to the church and god as they are there to remain completely neutral and with out biases.
Discussions with the catholic church are still ongoing and so your advice and information would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Ian
Hi Ian
This is a complicated situation. I can't speak for the Roman Catholic church or Scotland - because the rules are different.
Legally you are allowed to marry in the Church of England if you've been married before provided that the marriage has been dissolved by a decree absolute of divorce or anulled by a court. (The CofE doesn't recognize anullity through Roman Catholic marriage tribunals).
Clergy can choose to decline to oficiate at the marriage of divorced persons.
This is more to do with principal than sacrament. In the Church of England we have only two sacraments - Baptism and the Lord's Supper - so it's not that we see civil marriage, or any marriage ceremony for that matter as a sacrament. More that some clergy would struggle with the idea of allowing someone to vow to stay with someone until death if they have already sworn to do that with someone else previously - regardless of the location of the first marriage.
Increasingly though clergy are recognising that people are fallible human beings and marriages do fail - and many clergy are sympathetic and will agree to officiate at second marriages.
I hope I've answered the question but I'm not sure that it helps your situation with the Roman Catholic church. Anyway - let me say again that legally you can now marry in the Church of England and as far as we are concerned Marriage is not a sacrament. Maybe that information will be useful in going forward.
warm regards
Jan